Assignments
After Hurricane Sandy many news organizations will be thinking hard about covering breaking news events with iPhone’s and delivering the images via Instagram. Kira Pollack, Director of Photography for Time Magazine, hired five professional photographers to cover the event with their iPhones rather than their digital SLRs. By delivering the images via Instagram Time was able to show customers a more comprehensive report faster that would have been possible with a traditional approach to the assignment.
Novus Select announced today the formation of
Tectonic Media Group (TMG), a New York-based talent management and media consulting firm. TMG represents the top talent in action and adventure sports photography and filmmaking. The firm will look after each artist in all aspects of their career, from print advertising and editorial work, to directing commercials, branded content, and feature length documentaries, as well as content licensing, book publishing, speaking engagements, and brand endorsements.
American Photographic Artists (
APA) has announced that Editorial Photographers (
EP), a highly regarded association aimed at improving profitability of editorial photography, has agreed to a merger that will benefit professional photographers around the world. The merger is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. This merger will increase the size of APA to approximately 3,200 members.
Last month we wrote about
Scoopshot a site where any photographer can submit cell phone pictures for editorial use. The company has been in business for about 18 months and has over 130,000 contributors from 165 different countries. Now Scoopshot has added an option that allows editors to identify and give assignments to a select group of photographers that produce professional quality work.
We are rapidly moving toward a time when consumers will get more of their news via YouTube rather than from commercial television. On average 22 million people watch the evening news on the three U.S. broadcast channels each night. But, when there is a major event YouTube views regularly eclipse that number. During Japan’s tsumani disaster in March 2011 the 20 most viewed news-related videos on YouTube that focused on the tragedy were viewed more than 96 million times.
The U.S. Copyright Office is proposing to increase the registration fee for filing an online application from $35 to $65, and the fee for using a paper application from $65 to $100. They are requesting a fee increase because in 2011 fee receipts only covered 59.5% of the cost of providing the service. The rest comes out of the taxpayers pockets.
ASMP’s “
The Future of Licensing” webinar with Frederic Haber, of the Copyright Clearance Center; Henry Oh, entrepreneur and digital content distributor; Eugene Mopsik, Executive Director of ASMP and Richard Kelly, moderator was held yesterday and can be downloaded here. Licensing was defined as a process that allows a customer to use something that is too expensive for them to own outright.
StockFood, the world’s leading food image agency, introduces
living4media: a new picture agency specializing in home and living. The concept behind
www.living4media.com is to unite the most outstanding images produced by internationally renowned photographers and well-known niche agencies under one roof.
Many who enjoy photography and have had some success at licensing rights
to their images dream of quitting their “day job,” giving up a regular
pay check and taking pictures full time. This story offers a few things to
think about that apply both to photographers who hope to do commercial
assignments and those who want to license rights to stock images.
In May Peter Phun published an article on BlackStar Rising entitled “
It’s Time for Pro Photographers and Hobbyists to Call a Truce.” The article has received a lot of comments. I would like to weigh in with my thoughts on the difference between professionals and non-professionals.
In November of last year we wrote about World Assignments,
an organization designed to help buyers find photographers who worked in
various locales around the world or had expertise in working in such locations.
PhotoShelter and
Agency Access have just released a free ebook entitled “
What Buyers Want From Photographers.” The information resulted from a 35 question survey sent to Agency Access’ global database of 55,000 photography buyers. 500 responded to the survey.
Anyone who earns significant revenue from producing or licensing stock
images for educational purposes should be looking, as soon as possible,
for another line of business. Why? It is rapidly becoming
impossible to earn enough from licensing images for educational use to
cover the costs of producing them. For decades photographers have been
willing to license rights for limited usage of their images with the
understanding that if a greater use is made the photographer will
receive additional compensation. This system was originally developed to
help publishers limit their risk in the event that some of the book
they produced did not sell well or generate as much revenue as hoped.
Prior to 1976 a commissioning client owned the copyright to images
created by photographers. At that time the vast majority of images that appeared in
publications and advertising were created on assignment. The 1976 copyright law changed all that and gave photographers control of their work and the ability to license narrow and specific rights. Now, the business world is pushing photographers back into a model that
looks very much like pre-1976. The promise of a continual income stream
from our creations often seems distant and unobtainable.
At ASMP’s recent Strictly Business 3 education weekend in Philadelphia
four photographers explained how they had reinvented their businesses in
the current challenging business environment. Here are their stories. There will be more success stories at the last Strictly Business 3 conference in 2011 which takes place in Chicago April 1st through 3rd.
Recently the U.S. Copyright Office launched a pilot program that enables
photographers to use the Electronic Copyright Office (eCO) system to
complete group registrations of “databases that predominantly consist of
photographs" or “published photographs."
Here are links to a few items I spotted on the Internet that are worth reading. They include observations on the Getty Images search engine, World Assignment photographers and Should I Work For Free.
An exhibit of the work of several young photographers who are
participating in the Young Photographer Alliance mentoring program is
opening at the Calumet Gallery, 22 West 22nd St, New York City from
January 14-28. The gallery will be open from 8:30 to 5:30 Monday thru
Friday and 9:00 to 5:30 on Saturdays, closed Sundays.
If you’re a professional image producer looking for assignments, and you live or would like to work in remote parts of the world, the new World Assignment Web site may be for you.
In his biography,
The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan said, “The presumption of individual property ownership and the
legality of its transfer must be
deeply embedded in the culture of a society
(emphasis mine) for free market economies to function effectively. In
the West, the moral validity of property rights is accepted, or at least
acquiesced in, by virtually the whole of the population.” I was
struck by how this relates to the photography business today. The concept of individual property ownership is no
longer deeply embedded in the culture of our society. A large segment of
the population believes that certain property should be free to all and
that the creators have no rights once the property is shown to anyone.
Using the creative works of others without permission or compensation is
becoming the morally accepted standard.
Phrases like “it’s not all doom and gloom” pop up often, but those who offer such encouraging analysis are typically in the top tier of the profession. While their experience is certainly real and laudable if not amazing, is it representative enough to be touted as a roadmap to a successful career? Common sense, economics, mathematics and every available source of statistical information says no.
The traditional market for single images is under intense pressure. However, the demand for imagery that hangs together as a story is increasing in both editorial and commercial arenas.
On LinkedIn’s ASMP group James Cavanaugh outlined the following client
request
, “A client wants you to create photographs that
they can use on social network sites so they can "go viral" to promote
their company. It means potentially countless people may use your
copyrighted work,” and he asked “How would you approach such a request?”
This story provides my answer.
I
had already been a still photographer for over 20 years when I started
exploring digital video and the motion medium ten years ago. I had
built a successful career shooting editorially for magazines like
National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, Travel & Leisure to name
a few, as well as producing annual reports for major corporations.
When digital video hit the scene in the late ‘90’s, I was already
starting to feel a slight frustration in trying to tell certain stories
with a still camera. I was beginning to think and see in terms of
movement and sound. At the same time, technology was making it
possible and affordable with digital video cameras and non-linear
editing software for me to use this medium to tell my stories. The new
tools were a means to an end.
The topic of future career opportunities in
photography has engendered a lively discussion on several Linkedin groups. Do such opportunities still exist or should most of those entering the profession consider other avenues?